Writers' Program (New York State)

The Federal Works Progress Administration was established by Presidential Executive Order No. 7034 on May 6, 1935 to coordinate execution of the Federal work relief program. The Federal Writer's Project (FWP) was approved the following July as part of Federal Project One, the WPA Arts Program. The FWP was supervised by WPA's Division of Women's and Professional Projects (1935-1939), Division of Professional and Service Projects (1939-1941), and Division of Community Service Projects (1941-1942). All publications prepared and editing completed by the state office was subject to approval by the national FWP office.

New York was divided between two independently administered writers' projects. The New York City Federal Writers' Project was responsible for the five counties of New York City and the New York State Federal Writers' Project covered the other 57 counties of the state, including Long Island. Generally, there was little collaboration between the two projects. The State Project was headed locally by district supervisors and county officers. Each local office employed "field workers" to conduct research and prepare copy for editing. The majority of field workers were drawn from relief rolls, and all were technically federal employees.

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